Category Archives: Newest Blogs (最新ブログ)

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) January 25, 2020 Kerosene Heater All of the rooms in my house are heated electrically except for my office. I use a kerosene heater for my office and it’s quite convenient. I sometimes use it to slow-cook foods and it can provide heat in the event of a power outage. I recall seeing scenes on TV of people gathered around old-fashioned kerosene heaters after the Great Tohoku Earthquake in 2011 and always think that sometimes older technology is more stable than the electricity-dependent newer forms. 石油ストーブ 我家の事務所以外の部屋には電気の冷暖房が設置されている。事務所には石油ストーブがある。なかなか便利で たまには料理にも使うし、万が一の停電には機能できる。 2011年の東北大地震後、テレビで避難者が暗い部屋に昔式の石油ストーブ周囲に座って暖をとる場面を観た。その時、最新の電気に依存する技術よりもひと昔のアナログ技術が活躍すると思った。 ********** Books published by AELS (AELS出版書籍) 魔女学院＆光塾：魔女ガールズの冒険 原作＆翻訳：ビレー　ハモンド 日本語編集：伊庭野れい子 Majoh Gakuin & Hikari Juku – Japanese Witch Schools – English Edition (魔女学院＆光塾（英語） By Billy Hammond 迷える魔女の戦い (魔女学院＆光塾シリーズ第2弾) 原作＆翻訳：ビレー　ハモンド 日本語編集：伊庭野れい子 Lost Witch (Majoh Gakuin & Hikari Juku Series Book 2) – English Edition (迷える魔女: 魔女学院＆光塾第2弾：英語版） By Billy […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) January 22, 2020 TV clips of children in underdeveloped countries or those devastated by war or famine often show children with distended abdomens. Others show children who are severely underweight and emaciated yet with no abdominal swelling. Both sets of children are suffering from malnutrition, but the causes are slightly different. The children with the distended abdomens are suffering from a disease known as “Kwashiorkor” which is a disease in which their diet is deficient in protein in relation to calories as in a starch dominant diet. Their symptoms include stunted growth, edema, dermal lesions, loss of hair pigmentation, and decreased plasma albumin. The deposition of fat leads to liver enlargement which gives the appearance of the distended abdomens seen in images. Marasmus is the result of a deficiency in calories in relation to protein […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) January 19, 2020 I’ve tried to keep track of the students I’ve taught martial arts to over the past 40 years or so. One thing that surfaces time and again is the relation between junior high and high school club activities and their reaching their full potentials. I’ve taught students who were bright and brilliant academically in their elementary school years go on to junior high and join a school club that dominated their time to the point where they had no time to study. Some junior high and high school club teachers feel that their club has to produce Olympic athletes and be the best in the country no matter what the cost. I can immediately think of two ex-students who suffered permanent injuries as a result of this kind of thinking and a […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) January 16, 2020 Why you can’t digest grass Grasses have a high cellulose content. Cellulose is made up of an ɑ-1, 4-linked glucose, which cannot be broken down into glucose by the enzymes in the human digestive system. Starches, on the other hand, are made up of a β-1,4 linked glucose, which can be hydrolyzed by the body’s digestive enzymes such as α-amylase into glucose. Cows and other ruminants have a special bacteria species in their rumens that produce the necessary enzyme to break down cellulose into glucose, so they’re able to digest grass. 草の消化できない理由 草（特にイネ科）にはセルロース量が多い。セルロースはɑ-1, 4-linked glucose （アルファ1,4リンクグルコース）から構成されているので人間の体内の消化酵素では分解は不可能。その代わりにでんぷんは β-1,4 linked glucose（ベータ1,4リンククグルコース）から構成されているため、アミラーゼなどの人間体内の消化酵素によってグルコースに加水分解できる。 牛や反すう動物の反すうの第一胃にはセルロースをグルコースに分解できるバクテリアが存在するのでそれらの種類の動物は草をエネルギーとして利用できる。 *********** English novels by Billy Hammond published by AELS (AELS出版英語書籍リスト）   I. Majoh Gakuin and Hikari Juku – Japanese Witch Schools Trilogy 1. Majoh Gakuin & Hikari Juku – Japanese Witch Schools […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) January 15, 2020 Anatomical Position One of the first things you learn in an anatomy class is the anatomical position. Basically, it’s a person standing up straight with their feet forward and their palms facing outwards. Left, right, forward (anterior) and backward (posterior) are always in reference to someone in the anatomical position. For example, if you were to say something like, “The patient has a cut on his right forearm.” everyone would know that you’re talking about the “right” as seen by the patient and not the right as seen by you. It’s such a simple concept, but since most of us don’t use it in our daily lives, it can create confusion when someone says something like “He’s the man in line standing on the right” necessitating statements like “He’s the man in […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) January 14, 2020 I’ve noticed a trend to feature retro 1960’s – 80’s commercials in Japanese ads on TV over the past two years or so. For me, they’re quite cute and nostalgic; so much so that I often find myself forgetting the product they were advertising afterwards… レトロＣＭ この過去2年間ほどに60年～80年代のレトロ テレビＣＭが多くなったような気がする。 私にとっては、それらは可愛くって懐かしい。しかし、レトロのイメージが強過ぎて、後で何の宣伝だったかを思い出せない… ****** English novels by Billy Hammond published by AELS (AELS出版英語書籍リスト）   I. Majoh Gakuin and Hikari Juku – Japanese Witch Schools Trilogy 1. Majoh Gakuin & Hikari Juku – Japanese Witch Schools 2. Lost Witch (The second book) 3. Fate & Magic (The final book in the trilogy) II. Brindle – Scryer Extraordinaire Trilogy 1. Brindle – Scryer Extraordinaire 2. Brindle – Scryer Extraordinaire – Returns 3. Brindle – Scryer Extraordinaire – Challenges (The final book in the trilogy) III. Fantasy fiction set […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) January 13, 2020 Up to a few years ago, I would run water directly from the tap into a pot and boil it without a second thought. I’d always boil far more than I needed, but that’s what I’d always been doing. One day, it dawned on me that what I was doing was wasteful and inefficient. I tried an experiment with an instant dish that called for 300ml of water. I measured 300ml and put it in a pot. While I was boiling the water, I got the dish ready to receive the water. I was shocked at how fast the water boiled on my gas range! Ever since then I’ve made it a habit to measure water before boiling it and it’s saved a lot of water and gas. Try it and you’ll […]

  By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) January 4, 2020 The holidays have given everyone lots of time to eat and drink and many people are probably suffering from indigestion or heartburn. You can go to the drugstore and choose from a variety of medicines to relieve your condition or you can do what I do and relieve it on the cheap. I mix one-half of a teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) in a glass of cold water and drink it. For me, it works faster than any commercial remedy I’ve tried. Plus, it’s extremely cheap. However, there are a few things that you should know before trying it. 1) At least 2 hours should have passed after taking any other medications before trying it. 2) Don’t try it if you’re on a sodium-restricted diet or have hypertension (high blood […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) January 3, 2019 I’ve read quite a few books about hypnotic regression taking people back into their past lives and still have misgivings about the accuracy of the past lives that the hypnotized subject “remembers.” Dr. Raymond Moody conducted an interesting experiment* using 50 college student volunteers and 50 volunteers from the general population. He began with group regressions on twenty subjects at a time. In doing so, he discovered an interesting phenomenon: that of extremely close descriptions of similar past lives by two people in the same group. To me, this suggests that the subjects are accessing some kind of group consciousness, reminiscent of Jung’s archetypes. In my opinion, the jury is still out on the accuracy of past lives remembered through hypnosis. regression, *Moody, Raymond. Paranormal (pp. 144-146). HarperOne. Kindle Edition. 催眠術による過去世退行 今まで、過去世退行についての数多くの本を読んできたが、その現象の正確さには疑問を持っている。 […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) January 2, 2020 2020 Predictions December 31, 2019; January 1, 2019 Introduction At the end and beginning of each year, I meditate and attempt to peer into the future for the coming year. My average hit rate is about seventy percent, so not everything I see will come to pass and in most cases, I hope will not. 2020 looks to be a very rough year, so if you dislike alarming predictions, please stop reading here. Overall I’ve been getting negative vibrations for 2020 for the past few months. I can usually feel a few bright probable paths in each year, but I haven’t been able to sense any for 2020. Sections between the asterisks are what I “saw” in meditation. Other sections are what I received. World *The earth seems to be undergoing massive […]